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When she left Aon in '02, Kathleen Burns had worked her way up from intern to unit manager over 17 years. She returned as a division CEO in April. Maybe she would've been promoted if she'd stuck around, "but I wouldn't have been as well-prepared." Photo: John R. Boehm

When employees leave a company, a door closes behind them. However, that door usually isn't locked.

When employees leave a company, a door closes behind them. However, that door usually isn't locked.

A well-done exit and well-timed return can be a smart career move. One high-profile example: Irene Rosenfeld.

Ms. Rosenfeld, 53, a 20-year veteran of Kraft Foods Inc., left the company in 2003 as president of Kraft North America. She spent three years as president and CEO of PepsiCo Inc.'s Frito-Lay unit. Then, in late June, amid a blaze of headlines, she returned to Kraft as CEO of the $34-billion company.

"It's good to have Irene back," Jean Spence, Kraft executive vice-president and global head of technology and quality, says in a statement. "Her success at Frito-Lay underscores that she is truly a world-class executive who can succeed anywhere." (A Kraft spokeswoman says Ms. Rosenfeld is not yet granting individual media interviews.)

"Boomerang" executives aren't rare, and neither is the desire to return to a former employer. A 2005 survey of 4,000 executives by Korn/Ferry International, the New York-based recruiting firm, found that 74% of respondents would consider or were likely to consider returning to work for a former employer. Only 16% would not consider it or were unlikely to.

Executives cite several reasons for leaving a company: to wait out turmoil caused by management or ownership changes, the lure of greener pastures, a desire for new experiences.

The biggest reason to return? To parlay newly gained experience into a better title and higher salary.

Companies often welcome back former employees, provided they left on good terms.

"We're in a tight labor market  if you can get someone who can hit the ground running, it's a win-win situation," says Karen Palvisak, national leader of alumni relations at Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, which maintains an 85,000-name national database of former employees. (There are 6,000 alumni in the Chicago area.)

Ms. Palvisak estimates that 20% of company-wide hires each year have worked at the accounting firm in the past. "We are in the relationship business," she says. "Even if (employees) leave the firm, they're part of our extended family."

LURED BACK

Kathleen Burns left Aon Corp. in 2002 because of what she terms "internal and operational changes." Leaving was no small matter for her, since she had begun her career as an intern at the Chicago-based insurance broker. Over 17 years, she worked her way up to managing director of the company's eSolutions Group, which provides Internet-based claims and risk management tools.

Still, "I really felt like I wanted the opportunity to work somewhere else," says Ms. Burns, 40. Aon "was the only place I had had any professional experience."

She left Aon for a 3½-year stint in the Chicago office of Marsh Inc., an Aon rival based in New York. Aon's invitation to return came on her 40th birthday last year.

Ms. Burns returned to Aon in April as CEO of the eSolutions Group, a post she's not sure she would have gotten had she stayed at the company. "I might have, but I wouldn't have been as well-prepared," she says. Working through a "significant" growth period at Marsh was valuable experience, as was the simple fact that she had worked elsewhere for a while.

"I didn't realize how embedded in the Aon organization I was," Ms. Burns says. "Making a move mid-career to another company. . . . There were a lot more challenges than I would expect." Among them: "Not knowing who to call, not having the right relationships with people."

When Patrick Dolan boomeranged, he lost a mentor. Mr. Dolan left a marketing post at the Chicago office of London-based Reuters' in 1993 for the New York office of Bankers Trust and a job as vice-president of global sales for a new mutual fund. "They significantly increased my compensation, and they moved me to New York," says Mr. Dolan, 45.

A year later, Bankers Trust shut down the fund, and Mr. Dolan rejoined Reuters at a higher salary and with a better title. He reached out to a London-based senior executive who had been a mentor.

"He wanted nothing to do with me," recalls Mr. Dolan, who's now a corporate account executive in global sales for the Chicago office of Troy, Mich.-based Kelly Services Inc. "He felt that I had left once, and there was reason to believe I might leave again, and he didn't want to invest the time."

The executive was right: Mr. Dolan left Reuters two years later to start his own business.

A family situation brought ComEd veteran Fidel Marquez back to the utility and Chicago three years after he left for San Antonio. Photo: Erik Unger

'SOUL-SEARCH' NEEDED

Indeed, a successful return "depends on the driver and what is important for that individual," says Cathleen Faerber, managing director at the Wellesley Group, a Buffalo Grove-based executive search firm. "If you're looking to go back, you need to soul-search on why you left in the first place, what has changed and what you'll gain by going back."

Commonwealth Edison Co. veteran Fidel Marquez didn't have a chance to do much soul-searching: A family situation, not a career move, made him leave a job and a lifestyle he enjoyed in San Antonio to return to the Chicago-based electric utility.

Mr. Marquez, now 44, left ComEd in 2000 after a recruiter called with an offer of a higher position at CPS Energy, a gas and electric utility in San Antonio. "The whole time I was gone, I would get frequent calls from ComEd," says Mr. Marquez. He rejected offers to return until a family matter arose.

He remembers the day he said yes to a ComEd recruiter. "I was driving in my car, and there was a large yell and cheer" from the recruiter, he says. He returned to the company in 2003.

"Had (family) not become an issue, I would not have come back," Mr. Marquez says, but the serendipity worked well as a career move. He had left as director of transmission operations and returned as vice-president of external affairs. And, a year after returning, Mr. Marquez was promoted to vice-president of government relations at ComEd, thanks largely to experience he gained in San Antonio.

Exit strategies

A well-orchestrated departure can leave the door ajar for you. Here's the way to go: Behave professionally. Give enough notice. Don't leave with company information that you shouldn't have. And resist the urge to bad-mouth the boss, even to colleagues you consider friends. Upon leaving, "people feel compelled to tell people how they really feel about them," notes executive recruiter Cathleen Faerber. Keep in touch informally. Holiday and birthday cards and the occasional phone call or e-mail let former colleagues know what you've been up to and can keep you top of mind. "I probably spoke to five or six people I knew a couple of times a year," says Jody Cooper, who left search firm Korn/Ferry International's office in New York in 2001 and returned to the Chicago office this past May. Consult for your former employer. Craig Dooley, a vice-president at Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., left in 1998 to work in technology. He wound up consulting to the Mart, and when an attractive job was mentioned in a meeting, "I said, 'Why not me?' " says Mr. Dooley, 36. "I changed hats from consulting on Friday to running a management team on Monday." But if you were fired for cause, forget about returning. Companies are unlikely to be convinced to rehire an employee terminated for stealing, sexual harassment or other such sins.

He came back to see ComEd with different eyes. "It was pretty obvious that the smaller organization was more nimble," Mr. Marquez says. "It wasn't the size that made it nimble, but open lines of communication. I was able to open my eyes to that here and kept pushing on having open and clear lines of communication, even though we're a large organization."

UNWISE REASONS

More reasons for boomeranging: waiting for a "human roadblock" to leave (a stubborn manager, an exec who still sees you as the intern even though you're 40 years old), and feeling as if you're underappreciated or overlooked.

Neither is a wise career move. "It's better to move toward something, rather than run away," says M. Nora Klaver, an executive coach whose firm, Inq Inc., is based in Oak Park. In the first instance, "leaving sends a wrong message  it indicates that you can only work with certain individuals," Ms. Klaver says.

As for an exit due to lack of attention: "Leaving shouldn't be part of a grand strategy to get your employer's attention," she says. "It should be because the new place is great for your development, with better salary opportunities or better life balance."

But new pastures don't always turn out to be so green. Christopher Macchia, executive chef at Coco Pazzo Café in Chicago, left his post in February to become chef de cuisine at the Peninsula Chicago hotel's Lobby restaurant. Mr. Macchia, 26, thought a larger company would provide him more job stability, more financial benefits and a better lifestyle.

After five months at the Peninsula, however, he found he missed Coco Pazzo, both the regular diners and the cafe's rustic Italian cooking style. Mr. Macchia returned on July 26, with a slightly higher salary and with perks including a dining allowance, a yearly research trip to Italy and twice-yearly trips to New York.

"When it comes down to it, different things make different people happy," Mr. Macchia says.

When she left Aon in '02, Kathleen Burns had worked her way up from intern to unit manager over 17 years. She returned as a division CEO in April. Maybe she would've been promoted if she'd stuck around, "but I wouldn't have been as well-prepared." Photo: John R. Boehm